A compilation of damn fine rare funk and soul, all connected by the hand of legendary producer Bob Shad. Feeling Good includes happy-vibes material from acts including Alice Clark, Barry Miles and Blue Mitchell, all covered in Shad’s colourful production: lots of Rhodes organ and high-funk rhythms.

While searching the South Pacific for a missing aviator, Bob Mitchell and Jimmy Wallace are caught in a typhoon and crack up on an island, escaping unharmed with the aid of Tura, a beautiful jungle girl who is the only inhabitant of the island and is believed a goddess by the natives of the adjoining islands. The three are about to leave the island on a make-shift raft when a gang of savage tribesman land, headed by Kuasa, a half-mad potentate who informs them that all whites are his mortal enemies because an Englishwoman once spurned his love and he got his revenge by stealing her daughter, who is Tura. He had set her up as a goddess but she must now pay for befriending the hated white men by being sacrificed to the crocodiles in an underground temple. An earthquake rocks the island and destroys Kuasa and his band. Bob, Jimmy and Tura find a party of rescuers waiting on the beach, headed by aviation company president J.C. Martin and his daughter Eleanor, Bob's fiancée. It soon becomes evident that Bob must choose between Tura and Elanor.

4-CDs sporting Joni's complete recordings for Geffen during the '80s, including all four albums ( Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm and Night Ride Home ) she recorded for the label plus some tasty rarities like a couple of demos, Two Grey Rooms and Good Friends , and a cover of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue that was recorded for the Night Ride Home sessions…

Bob Drake had set the bar pretty high with his third solo album, the admirable Skull Mailbox (And Other Horrors). So it should not come as a surprise that 13 Songs and a Thing feels somewhat weaker, yet still makes a damn fine record of avant-garde progressive rock (or experimental rock or crack-pot rock songs from beyond the grave, whatever suits you better).

I picked this CD up from Starbuck's the other day because I noticed there was a Previously Undreleased live version of No Woman, No Cry. I proceeded to listen to the album on the ride home the next day. The great thing about Marley and the Wailers is one song can be listened to with excitement, and the same song can later serve as a lullaby at a later time.